Dave the Diver In the Jungle Review: A Big DLC With Wild Growth

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Store links: Dave the Diver: In the Jungle on Steam

A paid expansion that immediately raises expectations

Dave the Diver: In the Jungle arrived on June 18, 2026 as Mintrocket’s largest paid add-on for Dave the Diver, and that scale is the central tension of this review. Store and review listings cited by AltChar put the expansion at $9.99, €9.99, and £8.99, while PC Gamer lists it at $10 and £8.49, so buyers in the UK should check their own storefront before assuming a single quoted price. Either way, this is being sold at a budget DLC price while several outlets describe a package that feels closer to a follow-up chapter than a small content pack.

The hook is simple enough: Dave, Bancho, and company leave the Blue Hole for Utara, a jungle village near a freshwater lake where an ancient creature has washed ashore. TheGamer describes the opening mystery as a prehistoric beast turning up in the jungle, while AltChar frames the setup as a strange phenomenon beside Utara Lake. From there, In the Jungle adds a new explorable region, new missions, new mini-games, restaurant changes, relationship systems, new enemies, and additional bosses. PC Gamer says it spent more than 25 hours with the content and was still playing, while AltChar estimates roughly 10 hours to beat the main expansion. That gap is useful: players who mainline objectives may see a concise campaign, while completion-minded Dave fans can stretch the trip far longer.

For returning players, that matters because Dave the Diver’s best trick has always been rhythm. Dive, haul back ingredients, serve food, upgrade, repeat. Smaller DLC can add amusing detours without changing that rhythm. In the Jungle takes a bigger swing. Based on the available review material, this Dave the Diver DLC is at its strongest when it respects the comfort of the original loop but gives your hands new work to do between familiar beats.

Utara Lake makes exploration feel fresh without severing the old loop

The jungle setting does the first and most important job of an expansion: it gives returning players a reason to look closely again. TheGamer identifies Utara Lake as a freshwater ecosystem, with fish and hazards that differ from the Blue Hole’s marine roster. The Wand Report specifically mentions crocodiles, electric eels, and giant sturgeon among the new threats, while TheGamer says the mystery eventually leads beneath the lake bed into a hidden deep-sea area with prehistoric marine life.

That blend is smart craft. A pure reskin would have disappointed players who already spent hours learning oxygen limits, fish behaviors, weapon ranges, and cargo pressure. A total reinvention would risk sanding away the satisfying friction that made Dave the Diver work. In the Jungle appears to sit in the middle: the act of diving remains legible, but the ecology changes the texture of each trip. Freshwater fish change the visual and collection fantasy. Larger threats make route planning matter. Prehistoric encounters push the expansion back toward Dave’s pulp-adventure side.

The most practical mechanical change reported so far is the Jungle Gun. TheGamer calls it a combo weapon with a net, armor-piercing sniper rifle, shotgun, and basic rifle, with each mode carrying its own upgrade tree. That is exactly the kind of quality-of-life addition an expansion should dare to introduce. Dave the Diver can become gear-management heavy as the bestiary expands, and a flexible tool gives players a smoother way to react underwater without stripping away choice. Investing in the modes you actually use also gives the weapon a small build-crafting edge.

The result is a dive loop that feels meaningfully refreshed for veterans. It does not abandon oxygen stress, fish capture, ingredient hunting, or sudden danger. It changes the mental map. You are no longer scanning the same vertical ocean columns for the same resource priorities. You are learning a lake, then learning what lies under it.

The village is the expansion’s boldest design bet

The largest shift happens above water. The Wand Report says In the Jungle adds an isometric overworld, relationship building, resource gathering, and turn-based battles with a Pokemon-like structure. AltChar likewise describes Utara Village as a full isometric space where Dave can roam freely rather than moving through the side-scrolling surface areas associated with the base game. That is a substantial expansion of Dave’s downtime, and it gives In the Jungle its clearest identity.

The relationship system sounds deliberately light. According to The Wand Report, villagers can be befriended by completing simple tasks and giving preferred items, with a heart meter tracking progress. The same outlet notes that resources such as wood, stone, and lizards can be gathered, and that some requested items can be earned through quests, found underwater, or purchased in a shop. This is not trying to outgrow Stardew Valley or the modern life-sim field. It borrows their readable social grammar, then shrinks it to fit Dave the Diver’s pace.

That restraint is a strength and a limitation. As a returning player’s refresh, the village systems give each day a second axis of decision-making. You are no longer thinking only about what fish to catch for service. You are thinking about who needs a gift, which errand can be finished before the timer moves on, and whether an evening at the restaurant is better served by stocking new jungle ingredients. As a standalone cozy system, the relationships sound thin. The Wand Report describes them as simplistic compared with dedicated cozy games, while still saying they work.

The restaurant shift matters too. TheGamer says the sushi bar is swapped for a grill, using new ingredients and recipes. The Wand Report calls it Bancho’s grill. That change is thematically clean because it lets the expansion stop treating the jungle as a backdrop and start treating it as a different food economy. The reported structure keeps the essential satisfaction of prep and service, but returning players get new recipes, new customer funnels, and new reasons to care about what they pulled from the water earlier that day.

The story has charm, cameos, and a real cultural stumble

The biggest caution in this Dave the Diver In the Jungle review is narrative tone. Several sources praise the expansion’s energy and humor. TheGamer says the DLC leans hard into easter eggs and cameos, citing references ranging from Guitar Hero and Journey to the Savage Planet to Two Point Museum. PC Gamer’s verdict calls the expansion charming and surprising, with strong character work. That is consistent with Dave the Diver’s identity as a game that can jump from fishing sim to boss fight to restaurant comedy without apologizing for its tonal whiplash.

But The Wand Report raises a sharper criticism: it describes the jungle village setup as relying on stereotypes, including feathered leadership, bamboo houses, and an early sequence in which Bancho teaches local villagers to cook fish to avoid parasites and illness. The same review argues that the DLC’s gameplay changes cannot make up for a flawed narrative. That criticism should not be flattened into a minor footnote, because In the Jungle’s whole premise depends on Dave entering a new community, building trust, and turning local relationships into the engine of progression.

This is the expansion’s uncomfortable split. Mechanically, the village gives Dave the Diver new life. Narratively, the village appears to lean on familiar outsider-arrives-and-improves-things framing. For some players, the charm, pace, and mechanical variety will carry the experience. For others, especially those sensitive to how games depict Indigenous-coded or remote communities, that framing may sour the warmth the relationship systems are trying to build.

My read is that this does not sink the expansion, but it does lower the ceiling. Dave the Diver has always been broad, silly, and eager to chase the next surprise. In the Jungle shows that bigger worlds need more careful writing. When a DLC asks players to invest in a village, that village deserves the same precision Mintrocket gives its fish, tools, and restaurant flow.

Platforms, price, and technical confidence

AltChar lists Dave the Diver: In the Jungle for PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Switch 2. PC Gamer identifies Mintrocket as both developer and publisher, lists the DLC as single-player, and marks Steam Deck as Verified. For a game with a strong handheld reputation, that Steam Deck note is especially practical. The Wand Report also calls the original Dave the Diver one of the best Steam Deck games its reviewer had played, although that is praise for the base game rather than a separate benchmark for every corner of the expansion.

The available PC review setups suggest the DLC has been tested across capable hardware. PC Gamer reviewed on an Intel i7 9700K, RTX 4070 Ti, and 16GB RAM. AltChar reviewed on a Ryzen 9 5900X, RTX 3080 Ti, and 32GB RAM. The supplied material does not report major performance problems, but it also does not give detailed frame-rate data, Switch performance analysis, or console comparison testing. If you are buying on PC or Steam Deck, the signals are reassuring. If you are buying on Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation, or Xbox, the source material confirms availability but does not give enough technical evidence to rank those versions.

The pricing picture is mostly straightforward, with one small wrinkle. AltChar reports $9.99, €9.99, and £8.99. PC Gamer reports $10 and £8.49. That may reflect regional storefront differences, timing, or a listing discrepancy. The practical advice is simple: at around ten dollars, In the Jungle offers unusually high reported volume for a paid expansion, but UK players should check the current price on their platform before purchasing.

Verdict: the jungle meaningfully refreshes Dave’s best loop

In the Jungle succeeds because it understands what returning Dave the Diver players actually need. They do not need the original loop replaced. They need the loop to surprise them again. Utara Lake provides new ecology and danger. The hidden depths bring back the thrill of pushing a little farther than feels safe. The Jungle Gun gives veterans a flexible tool with upgrade decisions attached. The grill reframes restaurant service around a new place and new ingredients. The village adds enough relationship and resource pressure to make each day feel busier without turning the game into a full farming sim.

The weaknesses are real. The social systems, as described by The Wand Report, are lighter than the games they evoke. The story’s handling of Utara Village has been criticized for stereotypes and outsider-savior framing. The review sources also leave unanswered technical questions for console and Nintendo versions. Still, the broader critical picture is strongly positive: TheXboxHub scored it 4/5 and called it a worthwhile investment for players who enjoyed the base game, PC Gamer praised its charm and activity density, AltChar framed it as the game’s biggest expansion, and TheGamer argued its scale comes close to sequel territory.

For returning players, this is an easy recommendation if you want another reason to lose evenings to Dave’s gather-serve-upgrade rhythm. For players who bounced off the base game’s task stacking, In the Jungle probably adds too many extra plates rather than solving that overload. For newcomers, this is a DLC to save until after the base game clicks. As a Dave the Diver expansion, though, it is generous, inventive, and occasionally messy in the way ambitious DLC often is. The jungle gives Dave room to grow, even if the writing does not always keep pace with the design.